In all the excitement of the various things we have going on, escaping into the fantasy world of D&D isn't precisely our highest priority. Instead, we enjoyed ourselves by watching some episodes of Legend of the Hidden Temple and Nickelodeon GUTS for a while before we actually got things started.
Still, in many ways this session was spent inching steadily toward a metaphorical cliff, preparing for a jump.
Picking up where they left off, the party struggled with the problem of hauling their prized tyrannosaur skull. They attempted to get Roland to carry it on his own while everyone else went on ahead to deliver the weapons to the orcs, but Roland's asking price for risking his life alone in the jungle (three copper pieces and a favor) was too steep for Buck, so they continued to carry the skull along as a group for another day.
Meanwhile, Ysbrydwyn the druid (commonly referred to as "Breadwinner") transformed into an eagle and flew on ahead to see if the orcs were even still alive. This task took her over a day to accomplish, but she managed to confirm that the orc village was, in fact, intact.
Upon her return, Buck finally came to an agreement with Robert to pay him 3 copper pieces and no favor to take the skull the rest of the way. Robert agreed, and the party left him behind, alone, lugging a massive skull through the dangerous jungles filled with carnivorous dinosaurs and other predators.
The next day, the party minus Robert noticed a massive dire tiger stalking them. Ysbrydwyn stepped up and, using her druidic magic, spoke to the tiger to convince it to leave the party be. Eventually a deal was struck, and the druid delivered 9 jackrabbits to the dire tiger for itself and its cubs. Although no doubt the tiger could have easily been beaten by the party, Ysbrydwyn avoided the conflict altogether with some skillful diplomacy.
The next day, the party arrived at the orc village, finding it intact.
However, as the party crossed the clearing that surrounded the fortified village they noticed that the jungle on the other side seemed to be approaching the village as well.
The party alerted the village to the problem, and they frantically began to prepare for the arrival of the titans. Ysbrydwyn transformed into a bird once again and approached the titans for a closer look.
The titans had skin the color of tree bark, and they were covered in leaves and vines, allowing them to blend into the jungle easily. They looked very similar to humans beyond that though: 20-30 feet tall, bald, brown-skinned humans.
However, they had no eyes--only deep, dark pits where the eyes should be. Also, for such massive creatures, they seemed to be making very little noise.
Ysbrydwyn attempted several spells to try and determine the true nature of the titans, but to no avail. Narrowly escaping the clutches of one of them, the druid began to hear words in her mind, softly, gently.
Where is the citadel? What must we do?
The druid flew back to the party just in time to see the orcs running out to meet the party.
And so the encounter with the titans has begun.
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This session's MVP was no contest: for checking on the orc village on her own, handling the dire tiger, and scouting out the titans, Ysbrydwyn has returned to the party with a bang~
Woohoo! That was a fun session! Although I do wish, wish, wish that we wouldn't end so late at night.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you're there for it, but I do keep mentioning to people that I'm cool with starting without Reid if needed. Reid's okay with it, too.
DeleteI'm personally less concerned about the time we end so much as the time we begin. We end when we're ready to end, but the later we begin the less we'll be able to do.
I'm not going to begrudge Reid's responsibilities as a parent, of course. It's going to be rough until Iris gets a bit older.